President Lula has been re-elected, Brazil's electoral authority has declared

President Lula has been re-elected, Brazil's electoral authority has declared

On Sunday, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was re-elected in a blow to US President Donald Trump.

The result over rival Flávio Bolsonaro, is the first time any president of Brazil has overturned a loss in the first round of voting, since democracy returned to the nation in 1988.

Lula, 81, secured 51.76% of the vote against Bolsonaro’s 48.24% after 99.81% of the votes were counted.

Polls were on a knife-edge throughout the stages of counting, with Bolsonaro slightly ahead for much of this time, according to the BBC.

The result followed scenes of chaos in polling stations throughout Brazil after the Supreme Court justice ruled at the last minute to extend voting by two hours, delaying the result by just over two hours.

This decision could trigger legal action to overturn the result by Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro beat Lula in the first round of voting on October 4^th, and many voters and political commentators doubted Lula would be able to reverse his fortunes in just three weeks.

With other major Latin American countries already under Trump-allied conservative governments - including Argentina, Chile and Colombia - Brazil has bucked the previous trend for voters in the region kicking out left-wing candidates in favour of populist alternatives.

Alongside Mexico, the result means Brazil remains a left-of-centre government sceptical of Trump’s policies in the region.

With a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy. That it will now remain largely independent of Trump’s policy in the region, will be regarded as a blow to his ambitions in Latin America.

The news was greeted with celebrations by Lula’s supporters in and around the Sao Paulo hotel where he watched the count alongside his wife, First Lady Rosangela da Silva.

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